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Motorsports emerging technologies: Where are they heading?

21 June 2019

The automotive industry is undergoing a fundamental challenge in the way it conducts its business. No longer is offering just gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles the answer as “electrification” is now the buzz word that no self-respecting car manufacturer can afford to ignore. This, of course, is rubbing off into the motorsport industry. However, the future direction that the industry should be taking is not as crystal clear as all that.

Take Formula E. As we have seen, it is a valuable series that is allowing more and more manufacturers to highlight their green credentials, but as Chase Carey, Chief Executive and Chairman of Formula One, recently told the Financial Times, he sees the series as a “business to business proposition, as opposed to a sport.” A marketing ploy for companies that want to be associated with environmentalism, but not a particularly exciting event that audiences want to watch.

In endurance racing there is the newly announced Hypercar regulations that will come into force for the World Endurance Championship in September 2020 and the IMSA Green regulations that will come into effect in 2022 in the WeatherTech Championship in the USA. While the Hypercar regs include hybrids, the main emphasis is on the spectacle of having super-exotic cars competing against one another for overall victory while IMSA’s thrust is on developing its and the manufacturer’s green credentials and relevance to the automotive and other industries.